Category: Morphs

FIRST, What is the Star-gazing (aka: SG or Star-gazer) mutation?  Unbeknownst to the discoverer of the Sunkissed mutation was that another gene mutation lurked in the genome of those first Sunkissed mutants.  It is now called Star-gazer because snakes that have the gene (it is NOT a disease so the only way a snake can get it is to inherit it from a parent) have inhibited motor skills that cause them so lie upside-down or move in a corkscrew fashion.  They eat and breed normally, but will always have this gene mutation for the rest of their lives.  we NEVER sell babies from a Star-gazing gene carrier (we either euthanize the snake or use it for test breeding to determine if any of our breeders are gene carriers).  We have tested a few of our Sunkissed corns but not all of them.  We have NEVER told anyone that our snakes are devoid of this gene and we never will.  If we sell babies from snakes that genetically tested negative for SG.  

Anyone who breeds Sunkissed corns potentially has a het SG snake in their breeding inventory, unless they they conducted breeding trials to determine if all their snakes have it.  

Wow, what a beautiful corn snake.  Sometimes referred to as Hypo B (the second hypomelanistic mutation to be discovered), this one’s the prettiest ever.  Allegedly, the gene derives from wild-caught Okeetee corns that were caught on or near Okeetee Hunt Club.  The odd head pattern on most Sunkissed corns is very unusual for any corn snake mutation, but the older the corn snake hobby gets, the more we see such unusual things.  In some, the melanin in their pattern is sometimes “shattered”, giving the visual appearance of having dotted blotch outlines.  Some even have no discernible corn snake pattern.  Just semi-orderly dotted pattern that sometimes doesn’t even remind one of pattern saddles.  Since virtually every Sunkissed corn I’ve ever owned was less than friendly toward humans (polite way of saying, “watch out when ya reach for one“), it is safe to say that their human intolerance is a behavior associated with the mutation.

Enough of the odd characteristics of these beautiful mutants. If there is one negative stigma attached to this mutation, it’s surely the potential that the one you get may have a genetic defect sometimes called “star-gazer’s disorder”.  The is called a lethal mutation since effects of the muation are not advantageous to the homozygote.  Star-gazer’s causes the snake to have limited or aberrant control over balance.  Similar neural disorders have been demonstrated in many animal species, and sometimes the cuase is viral.  Also, the neural symptoms of this mutation parallel that of animals with certain parasites that retard balance control. Star-gazer’s in corn snakes it not a contagious disease or pathogen, so the only way your snake’s will get it is through genetics.  It is inherited recessively, so some people that swear it is not lurking in the genes of their snakes, cannot really be certain of that – without controlled breeding trials.  Only by breeding a suspect corn to a star-gazer homozygote or heterozygote can one determine the presence of the gene.  Ideally, if you have any corns that MAY have this genetic mutation, you should breed it to a known homozygote.  Even that is not proof positive, given that you must have at least 20 progeny (of which 100% are not afflicted with the disorder) in order to be reasonably assured that it’s not in your snake’s genome.  This mutation was discovered in Sunkissed mutants, but it is not linked to the Sunkissed mutation.  It has been reported in several other non-Sunkissed corns (mutant or not).  Hence, if you discover you have a star-gazer mutant, it is recommended that you restrict it’s genes to creating “control” snakes that can be used by others to determine the presence or absence of the lethal gene in their snakes.  Even though it is not transmitted like a viral pathogen, the danger of the gene inflicting many other breeding lines of snakes is likely and potentially disastrous, in the absence of breeding trials.  Such trials are under way here at SMR (and with many breeders) and if/when we determine that any of our snakes are carriers of this lethal gene, they will be euthanized.  BTW, if you think you’re safe because you have been breeding sunkissed corns (or any other corn snake type) for over four generations without seeing any homozygotes of the disorder, think again.  If your first Sunkissed corn (or Okeetee or other type) was het for this mutation, it could take many generations for you to make the discovery.  Since each snake hands one copy of its’ genotype to each of its’ progeny, potentially half of each generation could be heterozygotes.  If you (or your customers) continually bred those heterozygotes to non genetic cariers of the mutation, only part of their progeny would inherit one copy of the mutation.  If you were lucky in not seeing any sign of the gene in over four generations (or potentially unlucky, in this case), it does not follow that none of your snakes are carrying a copy of the gene.  Until you pair two of them with a copy of the gene, it will continue to hide in the family tree.  Several years ago, I bought three female Okeetees from a breeder that is now out of the corn snake trade/hobby.  They were sold as being het for Sunkissed.  I bred one of the females to one of my best Extreme Okeetees and sold the babies as Okeetees.  Two years later, a customer called me to ask why some of the Okeetee babies she produced from the pair of Okeetees she got from me were doing the loopy, corkscrew locomotive thing.  Because I had never produced a star-gazer homozygote, I naively ruled that out, but upon reviewing acquisition records, I identified that the parents of her mutants were the Okeetees het for Sunkissed.  I immediately tracked down the other two customers that had purchased some of those, advising them that those snakes could be carriers of the lethal gene.  I then euthanized the three adult female Okeetees I purchased from the other breeder.  This lethal gene could be in hundreds or thousands of corns right now, and they don’t have to be Sunkissed corns.  Hence, if you ever discover that you have the gene, advise all customers that purchased its’ progeny, and if you’re not going to use the carriers for producing TEST snakes for others, I recommend that you humanely euthanize them.  By essentially eliminating them from the gene pool, you have take an important step toward eliminating this horrible gene.

Mixing the Sunkissed mutation with other color mutations and with pattern mutants is never disappointing.  Except for the grouchy demeanor, I don’t recall seeing a single mutation compound I didn’t like.  I know you’ll have fun mixing and matching them with other corn snake mutations and morphs.

Most Honey corns are aptly named for their namesake with overal coloration resembling bee honey. Combining Sunkissed (the second hypomelanistic mutation to be discovered) with Caramel, Honey corns have soft and beautiful colors. Review  SUNKISSED corns for more information about the distinguishing mutation that makes Honey Corns so appealing.  Some features the Honey inherits from the Sunkissed mutant side of its family tree include:

1. Generally grouchy demeanor toward humans.
2. Head pattern that is odd and atypical for being a corn snake.
3. Often elongated markings that are sometimes spaced farther apart than most corns.
4. Atypical belly pattern; usually less than most corns and spaced sometimes oddly and not in the classic checkerboard pattern of most corns.  Breeding Sunkissed (and therefore Honey) mutants to other corn snake mutations and morphs often promotes aberrant pattern from the SK or HO mutants of such pairings.  Many SK and HO Motleys have considerably more belly markings, which is atypical since classic Motley mutants seldom have a single belly marking.   

Enough of the odd characteristics of these beautiful mutants. If there is one negative stigma attached to this mutation, it’s surely the potential that the one you get may have a genetic defect sometimes called “star-gazer’s disorder”.  The is called a lethal mutation since effects of the muation are not advantageous to the homozygote.  Star-gazer’s causes the snake to have limited or aberrant control over balance.  Similar neural disorders have been demonstrated in many animal species, and sometimes the cuase is viral.  Also, the neural symptoms of this mutation parallel that of animals with certain parasites that retard balance control. Star-gazer’s in corn snakes it not a contagious disease or pathogen, so the only way your snake’s will get it is through genetics.  It is inherited recessively, so some people that swear it is not lurking in the genes of their snakes, cannot really be certain of that – without controlled breeding trials.  Only by breeding a suspect corn to a star-gazer homozygote or heterozygote can one determine the presence of the gene.  Ideally, if you have any corns that MAY have this genetic mutation, you should breed it to a known homozygote.  Even that is not proof positive, given that you must have at least 20 progeny (of which 100% are not afflicted with the disorder) in order to be reasonably assured that it’s not in your snake’s genome.  This SG mutation was discovered in Sunkissed mutants, but it is not linked to the Sunkissed mutation.  It has been reported in several other non-Sunkissed corns (mutant or not).  Hence, if you discover you have a star-gazer mutant, it is recommended that you restrict it’s genes to creating “control” snakes that can be used by others to determine the presence or absence of the lethal gene in their snakes.  Even though it is not transmitted like a viral pathogen, the danger of the gene inflicting many other breeding lines of snakes is likely and potentially disastrous, in the absence of breeding trials.  Such trials are under way here at SMR (and with many breeders) and if/when we determine that any of our snakes are carriers of this lethal gene, they will be euthanized.  BTW, if you think you’re safe because you have been breeding sunkissed corns (or any other corn snake type) for over four generations without seeing any homozygotes of the disorder, think again.  If your first Sunkissed corn (or Okeetee or other type) was het for this mutation, it could take many generations for you to make the discovery.  Since each snake hands one copy of its’ genotype to each of its’ progeny, potentially half of each generation could be heterozygotes.  If you (or your customers) continually bred those heterozygotes to non genetic cariers of the mutation, only part of their progeny would inherit one copy of the mutation.  If you were lucky in not seeing any sign of the gene in over four generations (or potentially unlucky, in this case), it does not follow that none of your snakes are carrying a copy of the gene.  Until you pair two of them with a copy of the gene, it will continue to hide in the family tree.  Several years ago, I bought three female Okeetees from a breeder that is now out of the corn snake trade/hobby.  They were sold as being het for Sunkissed.  I bred one of the females to one of my best Extreme Okeetees and sold the babies as Okeetees.  Two years later, a customer called me to ask why some of the Okeetee babies she produced from the pair of Okeetees she got from me were doing the loopy, corkscrew locomotive thing.  Because I had never produced a star-gazer homozygote, I naively ruled that out, but upon reviewing acquisition records, I identified that the parents of her mutants were the Okeetees het for Sunkissed.  I immediately tracked down the other two customers who had purchased some of those, advising them that those snakes could be carriers of the lethal gene.  I then euthanized the three adult female Okeetees I purchased from the other breeder.  This lethal gene could be in hundreds or thousands of corns right now, and they don’t have to be Sunkissed corns.  Hence, if you ever discover that you have the gene, advise all customers that purchased its progeny, and if you’re not going to use the carriers for producing TEST snakes for others, I recommend that you humanely euthanize them.  By essentially eliminating them from the gene pool, you have take an important step toward eliminating this horrible gene.

Mixing the Sunkissed mutation with other color mutations and with pattern mutants is never disappointing.  Except for the grouchy demeanor, I don’t recall seeing a single Sunkissed or Honey mutation compound I didn’t like.  I know you’ll have fun mixing and matching them with other corn snake mutations and morphs.

Anerythristic (aka: Anery, Anery A)

This corn snake (originally one word, we usually space between corn and snake) color morph is named from the Latin Anerythristic – loosely meaning no red or yellow pigment. Anerythrism best describes this morph because the most obvious missing color resulting from this genetic mutation is red. Another Latin term applicable to other snake species with this general mutation is axanthic, meaning no yellow pigment. Since red is the most recognized general color common to virtually all wild-type corns, its absence is more readily apparent. Having cited this lack of pigment, adult Anery corns nearly always have noticeable yellow – relegated mostly to the face, neck, and lower sides. The result of the retention of carotenoids attained from their diet, neonate Aneries do not exhibit this yellow – since it gradually accumulates throughout maturity. Adult Aneries that are devoid of yellow color zones are extremely rare in the hobby at this time.

Occasionally, we see Anery corns referred to as black albinos. We intentionally omitted this as an aka (also known as) because it is time for that name to disappear from the hobby, when referring to melanin-rich corn snakes. Modern perceptions of “albino” do not apply to such darkly-colored mutants. Ancient definitions of albino “may” have originally also applied to solid black (melanistic) animals (a common mammalian mutation), but that is now considered a colloquially incorrect term when applied to any wholly color aberrant mutant with obvious black.  I think it is nonsense to call a black snake ALBINO, since the word albino derives from the Greek albus – meaning white (which is the visual consequence of most non-reptile animals that lack color pigment).  Unlike mammals and some other animals whose colors are rendered as variations of their only pigment cell (melanin), albino snakes are often colorful (instead of white) in the absence of melanin – since snakes have color pigments produced by chromatophores AND melanin-producing melanophores.  Black Albino is an oxymoron in the realm of most snakes, and I believe its use in corn snake herpetoculture creates undue confusion.

What to expect:
Hatchling Anery corns are essentially black and white, since carotenoid yellow is slowly acquired from their diet – thereby manifesting slowly – as they mature. Most Anery corns begin to display that yellow around the face and neck between six and 12 months of age, and it spreads tail-ward the rest of their lives – relegated mostly to the sides of the body.

There is a reasonably dependable degree of color distinction between adult male and female Anery corns to tempt us to say that Anery mutants exhibit sexual dichromatism (aka: color dimorphism), but in so much as there are exceptions to this color distinction, the term does not accurately apply. An extreme majority (if not ALL) adult male Anery corns I’ve seen in my life had notably different coloration than their adult female counterparts. Males generally have earth tones (some shade of brown) in their ground color zones, their markings, or both – but a female exhibiting this color feature (without the aid of a separate mutation) is utterly rare. Most adult females are shades of black and gray (not counting carotenoid yellow attained from diet). Bear in mind that I refer to single gene mutant Anerys – since compound morphs can display colors that are attributed to polygenic or mutational traits derived from other genetic contributors. In most cases, male and female adult Anery corns can be visually distinguished at a glance, without the need to probe or compare tail conformation. This photograph is a typical example of this visual color distinction referenced above. This also applies to Ghost corns and some other Anery compound mutants, since they are homozygotes of the Anery gene mutation.  The color distinction demonstrated here does not apply to neonate Anery mutants.

There are only three males in this group of sub-adult Anery corns produced by Nancy Wimer.

Thank you, Nancy.

The Blizzard corn is the finished product of combining the two recessive color mutations, Amel and Charcoal.  If you pair a Blizzard with a non Blizzard, Amel, or Charcoal, in the absence of any other mutations in these snakes, 100% of the progeny will be common corns that are heterozygous for Amel and Charcoal.  By then breeding two of these F¹ snakes together, you will get approximately one Blizzard for every 16 hatchlings — in addition to some wild-types, Amels , and Charcoals.

What to expect:
As hatchlings, Blizzards can be nearly patternless, mildly patterned (dirty white or cream on white or pink ground zones), or heavily patterned, but no yellow will be present.  As adults, some Blizzards mature to be completely white and virtually pattern-less (although pattern is usually obvious in strong light or flash photography).  Most adult Blizzards at this time show obvious yellow which is the result of carotenoid retention from diet – which slowly manifests throughout maturity.  Early in corn snake herpetoculture, the majority of Blizzard corns lacked most (or all) such yellow, but through subsequent breeding to change the patterns of Blizzards, the trait for manifesting yellow was infused into many genetic families.  Breeding trials are ongoing — in an effort to create family lines that are devoid of this color feature.  This should result in the general appearance of white and pattern-less corns.

A few years ago, due to confusion regarding the heritability of the Bloodred’s base mutation (specifically that the namesake snakes were not red and/or diffused), the base mutation name was changed away from Bloodred – to Diffused.  The mechanics of this gene mutation barely diffuse the F¹ homozygotesthrough maturity (if at all), so do not expect Diffused corns to look like Bloodreds.  It is currently believed that Bloodred corns are the product of enhancing the base mutation, Diffused via polygenetic trait modification (selective breeding) to render a red and almost pattern-less (highly diffused) corn snake.  That is not the opinion of this author, but in the absence of empirical evidence to the contrary, the best hobby and market interests are not served by published opposition to popular opinion.  In other words, I’m not in favor of changing the morph name away from the original Bloodred since the new name Diffused is equally inaccurate.  Without polygenetic modification, Diffused corns do not have a diffused appearance.

A brief history on Diffused mutants VS Bloodred mutants:

The second anerythristic-type mutation discovered in corn snakes (Anery A was the first), Charcoal corns were originally named Pine Island Aneries for the origin of the first one to be discovered on Pine Island – off the Florida Coast.  Originally mis-perceived to be a variant of the Anery A mutation, the first one was bred to a Snow corn in a presumed effort to discern if the mutation was related to Anery A?  Subsequent generational results demonstrated that this was not an allele of the first anerythristic-type corn; Anery A.  There, if you breed a single-mutant Anery to a single-mutant Charcoal, you will get all wild-type progeny (presuming there were no other gene mutation copies common to both parents. 

Many of the original Charcoal corns lacked facial and lateral yellow.  Yellow was not common in the first generations of this morph, since early specimens apparently lacked the dietary carotenoid yellow trait/mutation common in most Anery corns.  Even toDAY, some Charcoal and Blizzard (Amel Charcoal) corns are devoid of yellow as adults, but in so much as that original specimen was quickly bred to a Snow corn upon discovery, the carotenoid retention gene(s) is annoyingly persistent in most family lines of Charcoals and Blizzards.  Breeding trials to identify the mechanics and inheritance of the carotenoid retention gene(s) are on-going.

INTERSPECIES  HYBRID !

Creamsicle (no aka)

Most Commonly Used Name:  Creamsicle

Mode of Genetic Inheritance: Recessive corn snake Amel + Emory’s Rat Snake

Morph Type: Single recessive HYBRID Mutation

Eye Color:  Red pupil

Formerly considered an intergrade of what used to be two corn snake subspecies (Elaphe guttatus guttatus X Elaphe guttatus emoryi), Creamsicles are the final product of crossing an Emory’s Rat (aka: Great Plains Rat Snake) with an Amel corn. Since the new taxonomic classification assigns distinct species to each (Pantherophis emoryi and Pantherophis guttatus), in herpetocultural vernacular, Creamsicles are now officially considered hybrids.  ANY progeny from Creamsicles or any corn snake that has any degree of Emory’s Rat Snake in it, is considered a HYBRID.  The albinos are called Creamsicles and the non-albinos are often called Root Beers.

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Formerly considered an intergrade of what were formerly two corn snake subspecies (Elaphe guttatus guttatusX Elaphe guttatus emoryi), Creamsicles are the final product of crossing the Emory’s Rat (aka: Great Plains Rat Snake) snake with an Amel corn. Since the new taxonomic classification assigns distinct species status to both, (Pantherophis emoryi and Pantherophis guttatus), Creamsicles are now officially considered HYBRIDS. ANY progeny from Creamsicles or any corn snake that have any degree of Emory’s Rat Snake genetics, is considered a HYBRID.  The albinos are called Creamsicles and the non-albinos are called Root Beers.

Beyond the HYBRID product of AMEL corn and EMORY’S RAT SNAKE, Creamsicle Okeetees have distinctively saturated orange colors, separated by broad (and shocking) white blotch margins.  Some of the richest color and contrast demonstrated in a Corn Snake Type.

Combining the three recessive gene mutations; Anery, Dilute, and Motley result in a beautiful compound most commonly referred to as the Blue Motley.  The genetic impact of the Dilute mutation is similar to the Blue Merle Collie and Shetland Sheep dogs – a softening of black – usually resulting in pleasing pale blue or silver colors.  Typically, the Anery and Dilute color mutations do not noticeably affect the Motley pattern mutation, but Motley virtually always improves corn snake colors.

Genetically speaking, Fluorescent corns are Amel corns that have been selectively bred to promote their target look (red or orange blotches on an orange background, with separating white blotch margins), but we have taken this to a new and better version by selectively toward stretching the markings from blotches to bands.  Since the only gene mutation they possess is Amel, the obvious distinction between Banded Fluorescents and the classic Fluorescent corn is the obvious banding.